p2b Research

Understanding the local picture

The partners have been keen to develop a clearer view of the current position regarding the use of online information. This has included two key areas of research:

Current levels and patterns of local internet usage
Local online health information

What do the partners know about internet usage in the city?

In summer 2003 researchers from the University of Sussex asked the theplacetobe.net partners the following questions:

How many people use the internet in Brighton and Hove?
What do they use it for?
What do they think will help improve its value to them

The research showed that there is no definitive source of this information available locally, and that partners are not collecting or sharing baseline data like this in any consistent form. On the plus side there is a lot of very valuable information related to internet usage in specific areas, and partners are very interested in developing an approach that can answer these questions.

The report includes details of all documents found and the process of investigation within each organisation.

Research conducted by Sussex University, September 2003.

Click here to download a copy of the report [word]

Internet usage in Brighton & Hove

in 2003 p2b commissioned a report which drew on the national data available about internet usage. Here is an extract.

Executive Summary – Internet Usage in Brighton and Hove

There is no direct publicly available information on internet usage across Brighton and Hove
Based on national level survey data combined with information on the people living in the city, in Brighton and Hove ...
- 128,000 adults (62%) across the city have used the internet in the last 3 months, 7% above the national average
- 64,000 households (54%) across the city have internet access, 13% above the national average
- 12,400 households (10.8%) across the city have broadband access
Brighton and Hove internet use is above the national average because ...
- the city is significantly better educated than the national average
- there are high proportions of students across the city
- the city is significantly younger than the average
These estimates are likely to be an undercount, as they do not take into account the concentration of new media and IT businesses and professionals across the city.
However there are areas where internet usage is likely to be far lower than the city as a whole, in particular East Brighton and Moulsecoomb.
For more accurate estimates of internet usage across the city, in-depth survey work is required.

The full report is available to download here.

p2b Health Information Project

Health was chosen by p2b as an important issue for the city and provided a way of reviewing the quality and quantity of local information available online.

The key issues raised by the report were:

The overall picture is very fragmented, with few examples of high quality information and even fewer examples of online resources offering any added value. Some useful information is available, although it is not easy to find and the person seeking information is often quickly referred onto national resources, or asked to contact someone offline for more details.
There is no sign of any local strategy for developing online resources to help address health issues in the City. This presents a range of opportunities for theplacetobe.net to not only shape, influence and improve online information provision for the City, but also by its actions to make a significant contribution to the way information strategy is developed and implemented across all channels in Brighton & Hove.
An obvious gap in provision is the support needed to help individual citizens, communities and support groups develop content about their personal health experiences. This could include web sites, forums and other interactive elements – combined with mechanisms to ensure the quality of the information offered.

A full copy of the report can be downloaded by clicking here.

User Testing, May 2005

p2b.net commissioned user testing to explore how local people use the search facilities on local sites.

A summary of the findings is available as a presentation.